Jun 182024
 


Pablo Picasso The blue room 1901

 

Next Stage – The General Staff’s Targets After Putin’s Feint (Helmer)
NYT Docs: Putin Was Willing To Compromise To End War in 2022 (Antiwar)
US Must Be Saved From WWIII – Trump (RT)
If Putin Ukraine Peace Offer Rejected, Next To Be Tougher – Intel Chief (TASS)
NATO In Talks To Put More Nuclear Weapons On Standby – Stoltenberg (RT)
Kremlin Views NATO’s Rhetoric On Putting Nukes On Alert As Escalation (TASS)
Netanyahu Disbands War Cabinet (RT)
The Unites States of Go Figure (Kunstler)
Schumer Plans Vote on Bill to Ban Bump Stocks After Supreme Court Ruling (ET)
British Conservatives Annihilated In Pre-Election Polls (RT)
Elon Musk Slams “Extinctionist Movement” Who See Humans As A “Plague” (MN)
Brain Chips To Replace Cell Phones In Future – Musk (RT)
Tesla Begins Testing Full Self-Driving On Chinese Roadways Ahead Of Rollout (ZH)
Horrors Of Biden’s Lost 85,000 Migrant Children In America (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Jim Rickards @JamesGRickards My latest interview with Steve Bannon on The War Room covers the G7 theft of Russian assets and how Russia will retaliate by putting a lien on $40 trillion at the Euroclear custodian. U.S. can’t think one move ahead. Financial chaos will result.

 

 

Black voters

 

 

Tucker Alex

 

 

 

 

Watters

 

 

 

 

“To think anyone on the other side is trustworthy, or capable of agreement, after all Putin recounted of US aggression, lying, double-dealing, and Ukrainian Nazism, is impossible.”

Next Stage – The General Staff’s Targets After Putin’s Feint (Helmer)

“[Putin’s terms] will obviously not be accepted by the West and their Ukrainian puppets,” wrote Rozhin. “Against the background of the ‘world summit’ [the Burgenstock, Switzerland, meeting on June 15-16] this will indicate that in fact the West is prolonging the war, so these statements [of Putin] are another torpedo in the summit. Russia is thus showing the countries of the Global South that it has offered a world that will be rejected by those who are broadcasting about ‘peaceful summits’…The war will continue. The goals of the SVO [Special Military Operation] will be achieved by military means.” The distinction in the last line is between Kremlin political strategy and General Staff military strategy – this is a distinction which published Russian analyses of the president’s speech and the state propaganda organs avoid identifying. The semi-official Vzglyad quoted Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, as characterizing the reaction from the West as “of an unconstructive nature”. No Russian official will say as little as this for the record.

Instead, Vzglyad has mobilized its official sources to patch over the differences between Kremlin strategy and General Staff strategy by emphasizing that Putin is following the latter. “According to [Putin], the West has received a specific condition – either Ukraine will be outside the NATO bloc, or there will be a bold and sharp onslaught that will leave no chance for the enemies. Putin is confident of victory not only over Ukraine, but also over the entire collective West. The proposal was made in order to recall this initiative after the defeat of Ukraine. But Western leaders did not understand Putin, and then they themselves will say that they want peace… But there will be no mercy, tougher conditions will be put forward.” In a second report from academics on the Kremlin-financed Valdai Club roster, Vzglyad claims “the essence of the Russian president’s speech is that the European security system no longer exists and will not be based on the same principles.”

“In addition, the Russian president managed to change the agenda of the Swiss summit…the president’s initiative is capable of transforming the security structures not only of Eurasia, but also in the perspective of the entire planet. In addition, Russia already has really working international institutions in this space: the CIS, SCO, EAEU, CSTO, BRICS, the Union State of Russia and Belarus. All these tools have proven their reliability and suitability in modern conditions.” The Kremlin’s American camp followers have repeated the semi-official line by scratching the difference between tactics and strategy, between feint and purpose. “Notice he’s [Putin] not making a demand about Odessa,” said one. “So Odessa is still off the table…So this is a prelude to the next ramp-up in Russian military operations.”

Russian skeptics, as well as non-Russian military analysts, point out that Putin has repeatedly refused to follow the General Staff’s advice, restricting their proposed military operations to an extent that there is open questioning about his reasons. One source says Putin’s June 14 exposition is “only half-right in blaming the Western ‘globalist liberal elites’ [Putin’s speech] for the current ‘extremely dangerous state of affairs’ [Putin’s speech]. Ultimately, the ideology of liberalism, inferiority complex, and corruption which dominate the oligarch-backed elite in Moscow has played a major role.” This is a reference to the role Putin invited the oil and minerals oligarch Roman Abramovich to play in the negotiations of March-April 2022 in Istanbul; in the negotiations with the Ukrainian delegation, Abramovich was Putin’s personal delegate and he outranked the official Russian negotiators.

There was strong domestic military and political opposition to this at the time in Moscow; there remains suspicion of an attempt to repeat by Putin’s Kremlin staff, represented by Peskov, even now. “He [Putin] cannot be so influenced still as to think the war against Russia via the Kiev regime will stop under the conditions he laid out, nor can he think there are any terms which the US and NATO can be trusted by the Russians to sign. That’s why the Russian Foreign Ministry tabled the terms of a non-aggression and security in Europe requiring the roll-back of NATO’s borders to 1997. That was in December 2021. To think anyone on the other side is trustworthy, or capable of agreement, after all Putin recounted of US aggression, lying, double-dealing, and Ukrainian Nazism, is impossible.”

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Much better deal than available now, and 500,000 Ukrainians still alive.

NYT Docs: Putin Was Willing To Compromise To End War in 2022 (Antiwar)

In April 2022, Ukraine and Russia were on the brink of signing a deal to end the war just weeks after it began. The New York Times published documents showing President Vladimir Putin was willing to make concessions to get an agreement signed. According to the documents, Putin initially sought to have Kiev recognize Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. However, a draft agreement from April 15, 2022, suggests both parties were prepared to set aside the issue to end the conflict. “Paragraph 1 of Article 2 and Articles 4, 5, and 11 of this Treaty shall not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol,” the document says. In December, Ukrainian negotiator Oleksandr Chalyi explained that an agreement was reached in the spring of 2022, stating the two sides “managed to find a very real compromise. We were very close in the middle of April, in the end of April, to finalize our war with some peaceful settlement.”

Kiev was also willing to accept neutrality with regards to NATO, according to the NYT. Ukraine’s negotiation team proposed a peace deal that would say the country “does not join any military alliances” and “does not deploy foreign military bases and contingents.” The draft deal would have allowed Kiev to sign bilateral agreements with NATO states, as well as become a member of the European Union, but would have required Ukraine’s security partners to lift sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin also sought to protect the rights of millions of Russian speakers living in Ukraine by forcing Kiev to repeal restrictions on the Russian language, and to bar the state from erecting monuments glorifying neo-Nazis and WWII-era Nazi collaborators. As the talks were ongoing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was pushed by his Western backers to forgo diplomacy and attempt to forcibly expel Russian troops from his country.

Then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an infamous trip to Kiev to pressure Zelensky to abandon any peace negotiations, while Washington repeatedly vowed to supply unlimited military aid. The NYT report added details about US pressure on Ukraine to ditch the talks. According to a senior American official familiar with the negotiations, Washington “quietly said, ‘You understand this is unilateral disarmament, right?’” Additionally, the NYT noted that Polish leaders believed the French and German governments might have endorsed the peace agreement and pushed Ukraine to accept it. During a meeting in late March 2022, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda pressured other NATO leaders not to allow Ukraine to sign the Russian proposal.

Some US officials cautioned Ukraine not to trust Russia and warned the talks were merely a military ploy. However, two out of three Ukrainian negotiators who spoke with the NYT believed the Russian proposal was genuine, and one explained Putin had “reduced his demands” over the course of the discussions. Ultimately, decision-makers in Kiev listened to their supporters in Warsaw, London, and Washington and elected to break off the negotiations. More than two years later, the conflict drags on, with Russian forces steadily advancing on major Ukrainian cities despite renewed Western military aid. On Friday, the Russian president extended a public peace offer to Ukraine that is similar to the one nearly agreed to in 2022. However, along with Kiev agreeing never to join NATO and the West lifting sanctions on Russia, the Kremlin is now demanding that Ukraine recognize Moscow’s sovereignty over Crimea and four other Ukrainian oblasts that have been annexed by Russia throughout the two-and-a-half-year-long war.

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“..he has done more damage to the country than the ten worst presidents in US history combined..”

US Must Be Saved From WWIII – Trump (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has warned of the possibility of a third world war breaking out under the current leadership in Washington, saying that if elected he would reverse course. Speaking at a Turning Point USA campaign event in Detroit, Trump emphasized that he had not started any new conflict during his 2017-2021 presidency, and vowed to work towards restoring peace, particularly in Ukraine, if he wins a second term. Trump claimed that Joe Biden’s “weakness and failure” were putting the US in “grave danger” and “dragging us towards World War III,” suggesting that he has done more damage to the country than the ten worst presidents in US history combined. “We have a lot of problems in this country, on top of that, we could end up in World War III because we have an incompetent leader that should never have been there,” he stressed.

Earlier this month, the Republican also warned that the world could be plunged into a devastating nuclear war due to Biden’s alleged mental decline. Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump suggested that unlike the leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea, Biden is “not at the top of his game” and had never been “the brightest bulb” among US politicians. Trump warned that a nuclear exchange could lead to “world obliteration” and emphasized that the US currently has a leader that is “incapable of even discussing” the issue. During his speech in Detroit, the presidential candidate also criticized the Biden administration for “wasting money at levels never seen before,” particularly when it comes to continued financial support for Ukraine, and called Vladimir Zelensky “the greatest salesman that has ever lived.”

“Every time he comes to our country, he walks away with $60 billion dollars,” Trump said, adding that every time Zelensky receives money, he immediately asks for more. “It never ends,” he stressed, and vowed to have the issue “settled” before he takes office again as president. Previously, Trump has stated that the Ukraine conflict “never would have happened” if he had been president at the time and has said that he would be able to end it “in 24 hours” if he gets another term in November. He has not, however, offered any details as to how he would accomplish that goal.

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Obviously.

If Putin Ukraine Peace Offer Rejected, Next To Be Tougher – Intel Chief (TASS)

The conditions of the next peace proposal for Ukraine if the current one is rejected will be more complex and harsh, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said in an interview with TASS. “The conditions on which peace can be achieved and some sort of a peace agreement may be signed will become more complex and tough for Ukraine,” he said, replying to a question as to what will happen if Ukraine refuses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s peace proposal. Earlier, Putin presented new peace proposals on settling the Ukraine conflict, providing for the recognition of Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as parts of Russia, the establishment of Ukraine’s non-aligned and non-nuclear status as well as its demilitarization and denazification and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions. The Kiev regime has rejected this initiative.

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“..the only scenario in which they might resort to a nuclear option is if Russia’s very existence is at stake..”

NATO In Talks To Put More Nuclear Weapons On Standby – Stoltenberg (RT)

NATO members are debating putting more of their nuclear weapons on standby mode amid tensions with Russia and China, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Sunday, Stoltenberg stated that NATO is in talks about taking nuclear assets out of storage and making them ready to use, since the US-led military bloc must clearly convey to the outside world that it has a strong deterrent potential. ”I won’t go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues,” he said, adding that deliberations are already underway. The NATO chief stressed that while the bloc’s ultimate goal is a world without nukes, “as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world where Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and NATO does not, is a more dangerous world.”

He voiced particular concern about what he called China’s growing nuclear capabilities, adding that NATO could soon face “something that it has never faced before, and that is two nuclear-powered potential adversaries” – Beijing and Moscow. According to Stoltenberg, the US is also modernizing its nuclear gravity bombs deployed in Europe, and its allies on the continent are also upgrading the aircraft that carry them. This came after Pranay Vaddi, Special Assistant to the US President and Senior Director for Arms Control, said earlier this month that “absent a change in the trajectory of adversary arsenals,” the US would soon reach a point where it would have to increase the number of deployed nuclear weapons.

Western media and officials have repeatedly accused Russia of nuclear saber-rattling amid the Ukraine conflict. However, officials in Moscow have repeatedly said that they have no plans to use nukes against the neighboring country, stressing that the only scenario in which they might resort to a nuclear option is if Russia’s very existence is at stake. At the same time, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned last week that Moscow could potentially alter its nuclear doctrine in view of a growing threat caused by “unacceptable and escalatory actions of the US and its NATO allies.”

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“..the Russian president never talks nukes “at his own initiative as he takes the issue seriously..”

Kremlin Views NATO’s Rhetoric On Putting Nukes On Alert As Escalation (TASS)

The recent remark by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the bloc’s allied members are discussing putting their nuclear arsenals on alert is another bout of tensions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This is nothing else but an escalation,” Peskov said. Unlike Western officials, the Russian president never talks nukes “at his own initiative as he takes the issue seriously,” the Kremlin spokesman said. “Whenever President [Vladimir] Putin comments on the issue of nuclear arms, he does so, taking someone’s questions or questions from reporters, including foreign ones,” he explained.

Also, the NATO chief’s statement runs counter to the declaration issued following last weekend’s conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, Peskov added. The communique, he said, ruled out such rhetoric as inadmissible. Stoltenberg told The Daily Telegraph in an interview that NATO allies had started consultations on the need to put nuclear weapons on alert, including against the background of China’s plans to increase the number of its nuclear warheads.

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Nothing changes.

Netanyahu Disbands War Cabinet (RT)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the war cabinet overseeing the conflict in Gaza after a key member, retired general Benny Gantz, resigned from the emergency government, according to media reports. The prime minister reportedly announced the move to ministers at a meeting of the cabinet on Sunday. Gantz, a former defense minister without portfolio who entered the war cabinet shortly after the beginning of the conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas last October, announced his resignation earlier this month, citing disagreement with Netanyahu’s policies. ”The cabinet was in the coalition agreement with [National Unity MK Benny] Gantz at his request. As soon as Gantz left – there is no need for a cabinet anymore,” Netanyahu said, as cited by local media.

The prime minister is now expected to hold consultations on the Gaza conflict with a small group of ministers, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who had been in the war cabinet. Shortly after Gantz’s resignation, another minister without portfolio, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, also resigned from the cabinet, where he served as one of three observers. Another observer, Knesset member Yechiel Tropper, made the same announcement. Both Gantz and Eisenkot said they resigned due to Netanyahu’s failure to form a strategy for the war in Gaza.

During the government meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu reportedly said, “in order to reach the goal of eliminating the capabilities of Hamas, [I] made decisions that were not always acceptable to the military echelon,” adding, “we have a country with an army and not an army with a country.” The war cabinet was established on October 11, just days after the Israeli-Hamas war broke out following the Palestinian militant group’s surprise attack on southern Israel, in which over 1,000 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage. The cabinet was chaired by Netanyahu, and included Gantz and Gallant, along with three observers – Dermer, Eisenkot, and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri.

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“Pretend is what actors actually do, you see. They’re really good at it, and your job is to play along, suspend your disbelief. That’s the essence of showbiz.”

The Unites States of Go Figure (Kunstler)

You realize, don’t you, that everything going on around the Ukraine fiasco on the NATO side is completely insane? The folks running the US government — Barack Obama and his witches’ coven — started the whole thing over there in concert with a gang of corporate players (BlackRock, sundry oil-and-gas companies, Haliburton types, arms-makers, bunch of big banks), plus the dastardly WEF for “guidance” (ha!), looking to grab the mineral wealth of Ukraine and, ultimately, of Russia itself. Nice try. Didn’t work out. Tons of money pounded down a rat hole. Now, the chatter is that we (NATO) “can’t afford to lose.” Yeah? But we’re losing. Russia will hold the eastern Ukraine provinces and what’s left in the rest of Ukraine will be a failed state drained of men under sixty able to work at anything, bankrupt, broken. It will take a century, if ever, for Ukraine to recover from all that and the West will have gained nothing.

Anyway, that’s the true prospect. And so, the West’s “solution” to that humiliating quandary appears to be: start a bigger war, right up to and including nukes. That’s good thinking there, Butch, said Sundance. Why the European members of NATO wanted to go along with this nickel-plated clusterfuck is an abiding puzzle of history now, like who exactly bumped off JFK in 1963. Germany, the Euro club’s biggest economy, stood by listlessly while America blew up its supply of affordable natgas (the Nord Stream pipelines), which was an act of war by us against Germany. Apparently, Olaf Scholz went to our CIA station in Berlin for a haircut one day and came out with a lobotomy, staring blankly through the whole affair like a Hinterwälder steer on the killing floor. Meanwhile, goodbye industrial economy! Nice knowing you. Looks like it’s back to the fourteenth century, living on rough black bread, sleeping with the cattle under your house for heat in winter, fighting jihadis inside your town walls. . . .

What is the purpose, you ask yourself, of this new world war we’re itching to start? And why now, exactly? The stupid answers may be the correct ones. To furnish an emergency pretext allowing “Joe Biden” (Barack Obama & Co.) to “postpone” the election? If so, I guess they want a hot civil war even more than WWIII, because that’s what they’ll get. Or is it just to complete the destruction of the USA, turning us into a failed state run by a tranny Mamluk-ocracy? Or is it, as Ed Dowd has averred, to cover up the imminent implosion of the US / Euroland debt debacle? To provide cover for all that, the West held a fake peace conference at a five-star resort in Switzerland last week — flutes of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut with langoustine mousse in puff pastry boats . . . to die for! (and you just might) — and you know how serious the USA was because we sent our ace problem-solver Veep Kamala Harris, who cackled and hee-hawed her way through a session or two and then. . . just. . . split the scene, mysteriously. Russia, was conspicuously not invited, by the way. Whose idea was that?

Mr. Putin marked the occasion by issuing a sane proposal to commence peace negotiations so plain, simple, and straightforward that even “Joe Biden” might have gotten the drift: 1) withdraw Ukrainian troops from Donbas territory that has joined the Russian Federation, and 2) agree that Ukraine not join NATO. The US and NATO instantly rejected it, on grounds unspecified. According to The New York Times own search engine this very morning (June 17), the newspaper hasn’t published a news story on the Ukraine War for the past five days. Go figure . . . . While Veep Kamala Harris was yukking it up over the peace hilarity in Switzerland, “Joe Biden” went to the far more important celebrity fundraiser out in Hollywood, headlined by the likes of actors George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and late-nite snarkist Jimmy Kimmel, that is, certified experts on geopolitical conflict, united in the cause of “saving our democracy” from “the dictator Trump.”

“Joe Biden” declared that Donald Trump was bent on “retribution. . . he’s gonna get back at the people.” Roger that. But I think he meant that Mr. Trump might open some inquiries into how come the Democratic Party and its Intel blob ran one debilitating lawless hoax after another on our country for the past eight years while bankrupting it and destroying the medical system, the legal system, the currency, higher education, and the US military, not to mention jailing thousands on fake criminal charges and letting ten billion alien mutts into the country, many of them jihadis with dubious intentions.But never mind all that. $30-million got raised in Hollywood to continue the game of pretend that “JB” is running for reelection. Pretend is what actors actually do, you see. They’re really good at it, and your job is to play along, suspend your disbelief. That’s the essence of showbiz.

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“.. the high court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority..”

How is that a “disgraceful decision”?

Schumer Plans Vote on Bill to Ban Bump Stocks After Supreme Court Ruling (ET)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he will bring a vote this week on legislation to outlaw bump stocks after the Supreme Court on June 14 struck down a Trump-era ban on the gun accessory. Mr. Schumer, at a June 16 news conference shared by CBS News, said he would bring the bill up for unanimous consent, meaning that only one senator has the power to block the measure. It is almost certain that a Republican senator would move to block the measure. “We’ll see just what Republican MAGAs do: Will they allow it to go forward, or will they cower to MAGA and hurt the American people?” Mr. Schumer said. A 6–3 opinion by the high court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority when it interpreted a federal firearms statute to outlaw the use of bump stocks.

Bump stocks are attached to the butt end of a rifle, to take advantage of a semiautomatic gun’s recoil to fire more rapidly. “As I warned the Trump administration at the time, the only way to permanently close this loophole is through legislation. Senate Democrats are ready to pass legislation to ban bump stocks, but we will need votes from Senate Republicans,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement on June 14 after the ruling. The ATF in 2018, with the support of President Donald Trump, reversed its earlier position and declared bump stocks illegal in response to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, in which a gunman used firearms equipped with bump stocks to fire multiple guns more rapidly, killing 60 and leaving hundreds wounded.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito filed a concurrence on June 14 that emphasized Congress’s role. “There is a simple remedy for the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machineguns,” he said. “Congress can amend the law—and perhaps would have done so already if ATF had stuck with its earlier interpretation. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the Supreme Court decision “deeply disappointing.” “Today’s ruling renews a call for Congress to enact further gun safety legislation,” he wrote on social media platform X. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) echoed that, writing on X that the ruling was a “disgraceful decision” that “will result in the death of more Americans, especially children.” Some Republicans saw the ruling as a victory for Second Amendment rights. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on June 16 that any legislation to ban bump stocks might violate the Second Amendment.

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“Winning just 72 seats would be the party’s worst result in its 200-year history..”

British Conservatives Annihilated In Pre-Election Polls (RT)

The UK’s ruling Conservative Party is heading for “electoral extinction,” according to multiple polls published in British media over the weekend. Amid Sunak’s record unpopularity, two polls showed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party surging to third place. According to an Opinium poll published in The Observer on Saturday, 40% of likely voters said they would choose the Labour Party when they cast their votes on July 4. Another 23% said they would vote Conservative, while 14% said they would back Reform UK candidates, a better result for the anti-immigration party than for the Greens (7%) and Liberal Democrats (12%). A Telegraph poll published the same day showed even more dismal results for Sunak’s party, with 46% of likely voters choosing Labour, 21% Conservative, and 13% opting for Reform UK.

It marks the poorest showing for the Conservatives in a Telegraph poll in five years, while Labour’s 25-point lead is the party’s largest since October 2022, when Conservative Prime MInister Liz Truss stepped down after unveiling a widely-reviled mini-budget. Reform’s share in both polls is its largest since the party’s creation in 2021. A more detailed poll carried out by Survation for the Times showed Labour winning 456 out of 650 parliamentary seats, and the Conservatives hanging on to only 72. By contrast, the Conservatives won 365 seats in 2019, a majority of 80 and at the time their best result since 1987. Winning just 72 seats would be the party’s worst result in its 200-year history. The Conservatives’ previous low point came in 1906, when under the leadership of Arthur Balfour it won 156 seats to the Liberal party’s 397.

Sunak called the election last month, before the publication of economic data showing that inflation was unlikely to fall to his government’s target. Like Truss and Boris Johnson before him, Sunak has presided over an historic decline in British living standards and a rise in energy costs and inflation, both of which soared after the UK cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels in 2022. With three weeks to go until the election, some Conservatives have accused Reform UK and its leader, Nigel Farage, of splitting the right-wing vote. “The only wasted vote is a Conservative vote,” Farage shot back last week, after a separate poll showed Reform as the country’s second-largest party. “We’re heading north and the Tories are heading south,” he continued, declaring that “the people’s revolt is just gathering momentum.”

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“..If humans go extinct or civilisation collapses, whatever policies we may have are irrelevant..”

Elon Musk Slams “Extinctionist Movement” Who See Humans As A “Plague” (MN)

In a recent interview, Elon Musk warned that those who wish to see humanity thrive are in a fight against those with an “extinctionist” philosophy, environmental extremists who see humans as a “plague on the Earth.” Musk was speaking to the Cato Institute about the “implosion of the birth rate,” noting that we should be “very concerned” because it is “accelerating in most countries.” “If there are no humans, there’s no humanity,” Musk simplified, adding “we need to make them somehow.” The Space X owner continued, “In the sort of extreme form of the environmentalist movement, people start to view humans as a plague on the surface of the earth, as a fundamentally bad thing, and with the implication that if all humans disappeared, somehow earth would be better off.”

Musk labeled it “The Extinctionist Movement,” urging that “I think at a fundamental level, you can think of things as a fight between expansionist and extinctionist philosophies.” “That’s what really matters. If humans go extinct or civilisation collapses, whatever policies we may have are irrelevant,” he further asserted. Musk further stressed that civilisation and consciousness will end and everything will be left to robots unless we “have an expansionist philosophy.” “We must seek to go beyond what we’ve done in the past to increase the number of humans,” Musk declared, adding “one way or another, this must happen.” His final message to the world was “Go forth and multiply.” It is a warning Musk has been repeating for some time now.

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He mentions so much, and the author picks out the cell phone? How about “revolutionary treatments for people suffering from various physical disabilities such as paralysis and blindness, as well as illnesses like obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia..”?

Brain Chips To Replace Cell Phones In Future – Musk (RT)

Cell phones will become obsolete in the future, being replaced by chips that are implanted directly in the human brain, billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has predicted. His Neuralink biotech company implanted a brain chip for the first time in 30-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh back in January. The surgical procedure involved placing the computer chip – which is about the size of a coin – in the region of the brain which controls the intention to move. The chip is then used to “record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes movement intention.” Musk shared his latest prediction in response to a post published on X (formerly Twitter) by a parody account named Not Elon Musk on Sunday. The original message read: “Would you install a Neuralink interface on your brain to allow you to control your new X phone by thinking?”

Musk replied by claiming that “in the future, there will be no phones, just Neuralinks.” In its press release last year, Neuralink said its Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (PRIME) program aims at developing a “fully implantable, wireless brain-computer interface” that would at first grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts. It would later pave the way for revolutionary treatments for people suffering from various physical disabilities such as paralysis and blindness, as well as illnesses like obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia. In an interview with Joe Rogan in 2018, Musk suggested that Neuralink could also one day allow humans to communicate without using words, and possibly also achieve a state of “symbiosis” with artificial intelligence.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for the first chip implantation trial last May. Several weeks after the procedure in late January, Musk reported that the man had made a “full recovery with no ill effects that we are aware of,” and was capable of moving a computer mouse around the screen “by just thinking.” However, in May, Neuralink acknowledged that it had encountered certain issues after tiny wires implanted in the brain were dislodged out of position. Nevertheless, the FDA gave the green light for a second human trial, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. The next experiment, which is reportedly slated for June, will feature a modified procedure, whereby a chip will be implanted deeper into the brain to prevent it from retracting. According to the media outlet, another eight people are expected to take part in further trials by the end of the year.

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Wow. That’s fast.

Tesla Begins Testing Full Self-Driving On Chinese Roadways Ahead Of Rollout (ZH)

Beijing recently ‘greenlighted’ Tesla the ability to roll out its driver-assistance system, known as “Full Self-Driving,” or FSD. A new report suggests Tesla is testing vehicles equipped with FSD on city streets and highways in the world’s largest car market. Reuters cited a report from the government-backed Shanghai Observer that said ten Tesla vehicles with FSD are being tested ahead of what could be a much larger planned rollout later this year. Elon Musk has been strategically paving the way for an FSD rollout in China in recent months. His surprise visit to China on April 28, where he met with top Chinese officials, including Premier Li Qiang, clearly indicated Tesla’s deepening ties with China.

One day later, on April 29, news broke in US corporate media that Tesla would partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu for mapping and navigation software to support FSD, including satisfying regulators about data security and privacy requirements. Other reports said top Chinese officials gave Musk the greenlight to roll out FSD in some limited capacity. In May, Reuters reported that Tesla was preparing to register FSD with Chinese authorities for a planned rollout later this year. Chinese state media also stated that Tesla had begun building a Megapack factory in Shanghai. The larger rollout of FSD in China will be a golden opportunity for Tesla to expand revenue streams amid the worldwide slump in EV sales. Also, this allows them to better compete with local rivals in China.

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“If this happened under former President Trump, CBS, ABC, NBC, and other media outlets would be running 24/7 specials about the horrific situation..”

Horrors Of Biden’s Lost 85,000 Migrant Children In America (ZH)

One of Muckraker.com’s journalists has taken to X, revealing an upcoming report set to expose the shocking reality behind some of the 85,000 migrant children who vanished under the Biden administration’s first term. Muckraker wrote on X that one government insider has supplied them with a “list of addresses where some of the 85,000 missing alien children have been delivered under the Biden administration.” In the video, a Muckraker journalist stood outside an abandoned Amityville, New York house. He said this is one of the thousands of addresses the government insider has provided them, adding this home with boarded-up windows allegedly had two migrant children delivered to a sponsor living at the house. “Our upcoming report will expose the horrors of the Biden administration’s unaccompanied children program,” Muckraker wrote on X.

Leftist corporate media outlets have barely covered that the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement has lost more than 85,000 migrant children in Biden’s first term. If this happened under former President Trump, CBS, ABC, NBC, and other media outlets would be running 24/7 specials about the horrific situation. All the American people hear are crickets from leftist corporate media outlets, more focused on rainbow June month than actually caring about missing children. It is disappointing and another reason why distrust in leftist corporate media is soaring as ratings implode. In recent weeks, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump in an interview about the missing migrant children situation and what he would do if reelected.

“So in just this year, fiscal year 2024, there’s been 74,000 unaccompanied children that have come across the border. In 2023, get this number, 137,275. You know, you’ve seen the images of these children … and the Joe Biden administration has lost 80,000 of them. No one can track, no one knows where they’re at … Will you commit, will the Trump administration commit to finding these children, to finding them and returning them to their families? To their countries? Because many of them have been lost into sex trafficking. It’s heartbreaking. Will you commit to that?” Campos-Duffy asked the former president.

Trump responded: “Yeah, I would do that. Sure, adding, “I haven’t been asked that question, but the answer is yes. It’s a simple answer. Many of them are dead. They have done such a bad job.” Trump also spoke with Dr. Phil about the situation, in which he said, “Can you imagine if that were Trump that had 88,000 missing children…” What Trump is referring to is corporate leftist media would be railing against him if he were president right now for the missing children. Muckraker did not provide a release date on the report: “Stay tuned, you do not want to miss what’s next.” If the climate cultists and woke zombies across the West redirected their wasted energy from rainbow parades to actually addressing human trafficking, perhaps real progress in tackling this crisis could be made.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Kansas AG Pfizer

 

 

Turandot
https://twitter.com/i/status/1802646620015579338

 

 

Whenever I see Optimus, I just keep thinking: Joe Biden moves very energy efficient.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1802678186611777681

 

 

Horse

 

 

Baby turtle

 

 

Baby rhino

 

 

Elephants

 

 

Pride
https://twitter.com/i/status/1802658014249328657

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Mar 032023
 


Edvard Munch Summer Night’s Dream. The Voice 1893

 

What Sparked D.C.’s Sudden, Dramatic Anti-China Shift? (Schachtel)
US Army Secretary: US Preparing to Win a War With China Over Taiwan (Antiwar)
Beijing To Fast-Track Taiwan ‘Reunification’ Plans After “Extraordinary” Year Of Tensions
US Rallying Allies For New China Sanctions (RT)
Ride Across the River (Schryver)
Europe Needs ‘NATO’ Without US – Orban (RT)
Orban Says Understands Putin’s Arguments, Rejects His Actions On Ukraine (TASS)
US Blocking Russia From Participating In Nord Stream Explosion Probe (TASS)
Putin Calls Attack By Ukrainian Militants In Bryansk Region ‘Act Of Terror’ (TASS)
Top FBI Officials Opposed Mar-a-Lago Raid – WaPo (Turley)
House Overwhelmingly Votes to Keep Syria Sanctions After Earthquake (Antiwar)
Twitter Received ‘State Sponsored Blacklists’ From US – Matt Taibbi (RT)
Musk’s Human Brain Experiments Rejected By US Regulator (RT)

 

 

 

 

40%

 

 

 

 

Candace Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1630965039401238530

 

 

Jan 6
https://twitter.com/i/status/1631501213232513027

 

 

 

 

Rogan Brand

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..Sensing an imperial power in decline, China is increasingly challenging America’s status as the global hegemon..”

What Sparked D.C.’s Sudden, Dramatic Anti-China Shift? (Schachtel)

In recent days, select US government agencies have claimed, behind the shadow of classified reports, that they now believe a lab leak is to blame for the Covid-19 outbreak. It’s fascinating to observe this radical narrative departure from the not so distant past, when these very same people declared that blaming China for Covid was racist, xenophobic, and whatnot. On top of that, it seems that the new Congress is positioning itself only to investigate the gain of function versus lab leak scenarios, but not the origin of the information operations and very oddly timed coincidences that resulted in full blown Covid hysteria. They’re signaling that people like Fauci, Bill Gates, and Big Pharma are going to be let entirely off the hook, which is quite unfortunate.

Unsurprisingly, this is a signal that Congress is not very serious about the real origin story of Covid, and never will be. So what’s going on with all the China bashing? Previously, the Uniparty Standard was to do everything possible not to offend the Chinese Communist Party, and to even engage them as a potential partner on the climate hoax and other power grab campaigns. Now, suddenly, everyone in D.C. seems to agree that China can do no right. So what changed? Why take this action now, several years after the first reported outbreak in Wuhan, China? One possible explanation is China’s behavior concerning the war in Ukraine. Take into account that the D.C. Uniparty has already “invested” well over $100 billion in taxpayer funds into the Slava Slush Fund. Despite these “investments,” the regime in Kiev continues to find itself on increasing shaky ground, losing battle after battle in the conflict.

Ukraine is about to retreat from Bakhmut, once declared a “stronghold” city by Ukraine’s President Zelensky. When Zelensky went to Congress in December, he presented them with a flag from soldiers he said were fighting in Bakhmut. “The fight for Bakhmut will change the trajectory of our war for independence & freedom,” Zelensky said. Now, the fall of Bakhmut will serve as a massive strategic and moral failure for Kiev. Making matters exponentially worse for Ukraine is the possibility that China will take a more active role in this conflict. China is increasingly considering arming Russian forces, and it’s noticeably setting off alarm bells in Washington. China’s economy is ten times bigger than Russia’s, and counteracting the support coming in from D.C. would serve as a significant boost for an already progressing Russian military campaign.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken demanded that China take this idea off the table. “We did very clearly warn China about the implications and consequences of going through with providing such support,” he said. “We will not hesitate, for example, to target Chinese companies or individuals that violate our sanctions, or otherwise engaged in supporting the Russian war effort.” And earlier Wednesday, the White House press secretary labeled TikTok a “potential national security risk,” opening the door to a ban of the social media platform. More broadly, the China quarrel is about much more than the D.C. Globalist American Empire’s once-unchecked campaigns concerning Ukraine. Sensing an imperial power in decline, China is increasingly challenging America’s status as the global hegemon, and they’re doing so on multiple fronts. Beijing is also turning up the heat on Taiwan, which is not very committed to its own self-defense.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1631461008492597250

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The crazies dug up a new hero from behind the woodwork: Christine Wormuth.

US Army Secretary: US Preparing to Win a War With China Over Taiwan (Antiwar)

sUS Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said this week that the US must prepare to win a future war with China over Taiwan by beefing up its military deployments in the region. “I personally am not of the view that an amphibious invasion of Taiwan is imminent,” Wormuth said at an American Enterprise Institute event, according to Voice of America. “But we obviously have to prepare, to be prepared to fight and win that war.” Wormuth’s plan would involve sending more troops and advanced weapons into the region, including hypersonic missiles. She said the buildup would be an effort to deter war with China, although Beijing has been increasing its military activity in the region in response to US actions. Wormuth laid out three ways the US Army would work to build up forces in the region.

First, by increasing cooperation with allies, which she said would “complicate” Beijing’s decision-making. Second, the Army will establish “theater distribution centers” to pre-position weapons and other supplies in the region. She listed Australia and Japan as two places where weapons could be staged and said non-lethal equipment might be stored in the Philippines and Singapore. The third aspect of the plan would be to place more visible combat forces in the region. “Our goal is to have Army forces in the Indo-Pacific seven to eight months out of the year,” Wormuth said. When war breaks out in the region, Wormuth said the Army’s role would be to establish “staging bases for the Navy, for the Marines, for the Air Force” and to “provide intra-theater sustainment” using the weapons stockpiles and watercraft. She said the US Army would also have a role to play in the American homeland.

“If we got into a major war with China, the United States homeland would be at risk as well, with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks. Whether it’s cyberattacks on the power grids, or on pipelines, the United States Army, I have no doubt, will be called to provide defense support to civil authorities,” she said. When asked if the American public could sustain the level of casualties that would come with a war with China, she said they could, just “like we did in World War II.” But both the US and China possess nuclear weapons, meaning a potential war could be catastrophic for the entire world. Wormuth is the latest US official to openly discuss the fact that the US is preparing for war with China. Earlier this year, a four-star Air Force general predicted the US will be at war with China within two years and ordered his forces to be prepared. “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me will fight in 2025,” Gen. Mike Minihan, the head of Air Mobility Command, said of war with China in a leaked memo.

Wormuth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1631183835864891392

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US never recognized independent Taiwan.

Beijing To Fast-Track Taiwan ‘Reunification’ Plans After “Extraordinary” Year Of Tensions

Increased military interactions with the US, including ramped-up American naval sail-throughs and flyovers of the contested Taiwan Strait, appear to have hastened Beijing’s timeline for Taiwan “reunification”. A top Chinese lawmaker and adviser, National People’s Congress deputy Li Yihu, announced this week, “The [Communist] Party’s overall strategy for resolving the Taiwan issue in the new era has basically taken shape, and the strategic goals and focus of the future reunification cause have also become very clear.” He specified the process will be sped up, saying ahead of the annual National People’s Congress meeting which kicks off March 5 that “The mainland will promote national reunification on a fast development track.”

Notably this also comes after then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ultra-provocative visit to the self-ruled island in August, and further after multiple weapons packages have been announced by the Biden administration. Current Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is also said to be planning a Taiwan visit in the near future. Li Yihu specifically cited an “extraordinary” year for tensions in the region, as well as heightening global events and rivalries: “A series of new policies, including on Taiwan, are expected to be unveiled during the gathering, along with the defense budget and a government reshuffle. Comments made by NPC deputies such as Li can provide some insight into Beijing’s policymaking, which remains largely secretive. In the interview, Li – who is also dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Peking University – said 2022 was an “extraordinary” year for cross-strait ties and that its major events would “have a certain impact on the future direction” of the relationship.”

Without doubt he also had in mind the Russia-Ukraine war, and the comparisons which some US officials as well has pundits have increasingly made between the Ukraine and Taiwan situations. Beijing has consistently rejected such comparisons, stressing that Taiwan is under Chinese sovereignty, also finding the idea that the situations are parallel to be an offensive. President Xi Jinping and his officials have long emphasized a Chinese plan of peaceful unification via political processes, also as the mainland has deep involvement with opposition movements and parties in Taipei. But it’s unclear whether Washington’s pushing past “red lines” have changed the calculus. Certainly we are witnessing the beginnings of a more assertive and aggressive Chinese posture vis-a-vis the Taiwan question.

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Two can play that game.

US Rallying Allies For New China Sanctions (RT)

The US is coordinating with its close allies to impose new sanctions on China should it decide to support the Russian campaign in Ukraine, according to Reuters. Beijing has rejected claims that it intends to offer military aid to Moscow, and recently unveiled a plan seeking a peaceful settlement to the conflict. Washington is in “consultations” with foreign partners, namely those from the G7 nations, regarding new economic penalties, several unnamed US officials told the outlet on Wednesday. They declined to provide details about the potential sanctions, only confirming that discussions are “laying the groundwork for potential action.” The report follows repeated warnings toward China from the US and other Western nations, which claim Beijing intends to supply weapons to Russian forces for the campaign against Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg echoed the charges during a recent interview with the Associated Press, saying “we have seen some signs that they may be planning for that,” but without offering evidence. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that Washington would “not hesitate” to target Chinese firms with sanctions in the event that Beijing supplies lethal aid to Moscow, saying the move would carry “implications and consequences.” Blinken added that he raised the issue with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi when they met at the Munich Security Conference last month. China has dismissed the charges as “groundless speculation,” arguing that it does not intend to provide weapons to Russian troops while accusing Washington of hypocrisy.

“The US has no right to dictate China-Russia relations, and we will never accept coercion and pressure from the US,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday. She went on to observe that it is Washington, not Beijing, that has been “pouring lethal weapons into the battlefield in Ukraine.” While Western nations have long pressured China to sever ties with Russia, accusations toward Beijing have only grown louder since it unveiled a 12-point roadmap for a diplomatic settlement for the conflict in Ukraine last month. Moscow has signaled willingness to “carefully analyze” the details of the proposal, though US officials quickly rejected the plan, claiming Beijing has adopted “Russia’s false narrative about the war” and is not “serious” about ending hostilities.

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“Ukrainian tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces have been reduced to a minute fraction of what they had a year ago plus what they have received..”

Ride Across the River (Schryver)

The following is a speculation; a flight of fancy, if you will. Beginning no later than the waning autumn of 2022, observers of the ongoing war in Ukraine have been anticipating a major Russian offensive to be launched. The extremely costly late summer Ukrainian “counter-offensives” in the Kharkov and Kherson regions had ground to a halt against impenetrable Russian defensive lines east of the Oskol River in the north and along the Dnieper River in the south. Meanwhile, the Russians executed a substantial mobilization which has added upwards of 400,000 thousand effectives to their forces. Contrary to almost-universal predictions that Russian armaments would have long-since been exhausted, and their economy crumbled under the weight of western sanctions, neither has occurred.

From a military standpoint, the Russians have adopted a resolute strategy of attrition, most exemplified by the relentless meat-grinder of Bakhmut, which has become not only the single largest battle of this war, but the bloodiest battle seen on the European continent since the Second World War. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are now a depleted shell. The tally of soldiers killed in action is almost certainly at least 150,000 – and very arguably in excess of 200,000, with the irretrievably wounded likely double the number of killed. The Ukrainian Air Force is a non-factor. Ukrainian tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces have been reduced to a minute fraction of what they had a year ago plus what they have received from NATO since then. Ammunition shortages have become acute. The Ukrainians are quite literally groveling for more of everything from their NATO handlers. But the NATO armaments cupboard is now bare. And despite grandiose pledges of large new shipments of NATO equipment, the reality is proving to be a pale shadow of the promises.

Even so, the AFU manages to supply still-formidable garrisons of the “fortress cities” they constructed over the course of the years preceding the war. Despite the impending fall of the key strategic fortress of Bakhmut, several strongly fortified towns stand in the way of a successful Russian liberation of the remaining Ukrainian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson oblasts. I have previously considered that the logical Russian solution was to mass forces to launch “big arrow” offensives south from the general direction of Belgorod and north from the general direction of Zaporozhye; cut off Ukrainian supply lines, and then simply starve the Ukrainian fortress cities into submission. Something along those lines could very well still be the Russian plan. But these would be inherently risk-laden maneuvers. Big arrow moves necessarily mean exposed flanks and very long and highly vulnerable lines of communication.

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“.. the EU is serving the interests of the US at the expense of its own..”

Europe Needs ‘NATO’ Without US – Orban (RT)

Europe needs its own military bloc, one that’s free of American influence, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the Swiss Weltwoche weekly on Thursday. The US is dragging Europe into a conflict that cannot be won and risks a global war, he believes. “The solution would be a European NATO,” Orban said, adding that the US’ desire for further expansion of its influence is what has led to the tensions between the West and Russia. Moscow is concerned about NATO expanding further east into Ukraine and Georgia, Orban claimed, referring to his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin just weeks before the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev broke out in late February 2022.

“Putin told me his problem was with the American missile bases in Poland and Romania and possible NATO expansion in Ukraine and Georgia,” Orban told the Swiss media, noting that the Russian leader was concerned about the US potentially deploying its weapons to these nations as well. According to Orban, that was one of the underlying reasons behind the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. “I understand what Putin said. I do not accept what he did,” the Hungarian prime minister explained, referring to the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Orban insisted that Hungary should stay out of this conflict. He also said that Budapest was subjected to “constant pressure” as other Western nations “want to drag us into the war through every possible means.”

Orban believes that is because the EU is serving the interests of the US at the expense of its own. “Decisions made by Brussels reflect American interests more often than European ones,” he said. In his opinion, Western nations need to demonstrate a true “desire” and “will” for peace if they want it to be achieved in Ukraine. “That will is what is lacking today, at least in the West,” he said. Hungary has repeatedly called for peace amid the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, as well as criticized the Western sanctions imposed against Russia and arms deliveries to Ukraine. Earlier this week, Orban said that the ongoing hostilities benefitted no one in the world. Hungary was also the only NATO nation that supported China’s peace plan for Ukraine.

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“I understand what Putin said, but I reject what he did..”

Orban Says Understands Putin’s Arguments, Rejects His Actions On Ukraine (TASS)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he understands Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arguments, but rejects his actions regarding Ukraine. Speaking in an interview for Switzerland’s Die Weltwoche, the Prime Minister also stated that the West must find a way to coexist with Russia peacefully regardless. Orban disclosed that he discussed international security issues, including the expansion of NATO, during a meeting with Putin in February, 2022. According to the Prime Minister, the Russian leader told him back then that “Hungary’s membership in NATO is not a problem, only Ukraine’s and Georgia’s.”


“Putin’s problem is the US missile bases, already created in Romania and Poland, as well as the potential expansion of NATO to Ukraine and Georgia, with subsequent deployment of weapons there. In addition, the Americans cancelled important disarmament treaties. This is why Putin could no longer sleep well at night,” Orban believes. “I understand what Putin said, but I reject what he did,” he added. He also opined that Russia views thing differently from the West, because “this is a different civilization.” However, “it matters not if the West likes it or not,” he said. He underscored that Western power must find a way to coexist peacefully with such a strong power as Russia.

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Well, obviously…

US Blocking Russia From Participating In Nord Stream Explosion Probe (TASS)

Moscow has no doubt that the United States is preventing Russia from participating in the probe into the explosions at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a press conference on Thursday. “We were not allowed to involve our experts in the investigation. Neither as participants in the probe, nor as experts, including from Gazprom. Undoubtedly, the United States is behind this,” he said. He also called on the US and its allies to stop obstructing negotiations on this topic. “We want to resolve this situation from a legal point of view. As far as I understand, there have been certain negotiations on this issue, and they will continue. I hope that all participants understand the need for such negotiations,” he added.


Ryabkov noted that those who are now investigating the explosions did not share any details with Moscow. “For months since the Nord Stream’s undermining, we have been trying to get some kind of explanation or reliable information from those who continue to conduct the probe. They have not shared the tiniest piece of information with us,” he said, stressing that Moscow continues to insist on an international investigation into the incidents. [..] At a meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers on March 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow will continue to seek a prompt and impartial investigation of sabotage at the gas pipelines. Moscow insists on its participation in this probe, he added. He noted that the call of the Russian Federation to reflect the need for a fair investigation into Nord Stream in the G20 declaration was ignored.

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“set out to deprive the Russian people of their historical memory, deprive us of our history, our traditions, and language..”

Putin Calls Attack By Ukrainian Militants In Bryansk Region ‘Act Of Terror’ (TASS)

The attack by Ukrainian saboteurs in the Bryansk Region bordering Ukraine is a terrorist act, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with participants of the pilot educational program Mentor School. Soldiers and officers of the Russian Armed Forces are now courageously carrying out their duty, protecting Russia, Putin stressed. “Protecting against neo-Nazis and against terrorists such as those who were torturing and killing people in Donbass for eight years, such as those who murdered Darya Dugina in Moscow, such as those who today carried out another act of terror, committed another crime, infiltrated the border area and opened fire on civilians,” the president stressed.


The saboteurs were well aware that they were attacking a civilian car. “They saw it was a civilian car, saw that civilians and children were inside, that it was just a Niva car, but no, they opened fire on them,” Putin said. It is people like this who “set out to deprive the Russian people of their historical memory, deprive us of our history, our traditions, and language,” President Putin stressed.”This is violence, real crime, committed exactly by the neo-Nazis I’ve just mentioned, and by their masters. I’m sure that these very masters won’t remember today’s crime. No one will even pay heed to it,” Putin went on to say. “They won’t succeed, we will put the squeeze on them,” he vowed.

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It was personal.

Top FBI Officials Opposed Mar-a-Lago Raid – WaPo (Turley)

The Washington Post is reporting that there was a heated debate in the Justice Department over the decision to raid Mar-a-Lago in July 2022. The senior FBI agents objected that they believe that a consensual search was possible without the necessity of a raid. It was main Justice officials who overruled them and insisted on the raid. What is most striking about the account is that FBI agents were raising the very concerns that some of us voiced after the unprecedented raid on the home of a former president. The Post describes a “tense showdown” a week before the raid. Jay Bratt, Chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) of the National Security Division, joined other Justice officials to demand a raid. He was accompanied to the FBI by Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen as well as two counterintelligence officials, George Toscas and Alan E. Kohler Jr.

Toscas previously worked on the Crossfire Hurricane and Clinton email investigations. He reportedly pushed for a raid. The FBI pushed back hard, according to the Post. Steven M. D’Antuono, then the head of the FBI Washington field office was running the investigation and said that he considered the raid to be unnecessary and overkill. He wanted to arrange a consensual search. He reportedly even refused to conduct the raid without a direct order. D’Antuono wanted to reach out to Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, who is a former Justice Department prosecutor to arrange the search. Reportedly, the objections angered Bratt and the meeting became loud and heated. Notably, the article reports that D’Antuono “also questioned why the search would target presidential records as well as classified records, particularly because the May subpoena had only sought the latter.”

It quotes him as objecting “we are not the presidential records police.” Finally, D’Antuono reportedly demanded to know if Trump was officially the subject of the criminal investigation. As head of the FBI investigation, that was a telling question. Bratt reportedly replied “What does that matter?”[..] What is striking about the report is the preference, yet again, for the Justice Department to take the DEFCON 1 option over other alternatives in a matter involving Trump. If D’Antuono was allowed to seek a consensual search, any refusal would have largely blunted any later objections. Yet, the FBI General Counsel Jason Jones (who replaced the controversial James Baker at the Bureau) followed his predecessor’s more aggressive approach.

The report will only deepen the unease over how the Justice Department will handle the classified document controversy. Since the raid, President Joe Biden and former Vice President Michael Pence were both found to have classified material in their private homes. In the case of Biden, some of these documents go back over a decade to his time as a senator and were found in multiple locations from a university center office to his personal library to his garage. While special counsels are investigating Trump and Biden on the matters, the ultimate decision will rest with Attorney General Merrick Garland who must decide if prosecution is in the public interest. Few people want to see Biden, Pence, and Trump indicted. Indeed, the Justice Department maintains that it cannot indict a sitting president like Biden. To prosecute only Trump for such unlawful possession would cause a public uproar.

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“Only Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) voted against the measure..”

House Overwhelmingly Votes to Keep Syria Sanctions After Earthquake (Antiwar)

The House this week voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution to maintain sanctions on Syria following a devastating earthquake that has killed at least 5,900 people in the country, The Cradle reported on Wednesday. The resolution was introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and received 51 cosponsors. It passed in a vote of 414-2. Only Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) voted against the measure. The resolution calls for the Biden administration to remain committed to “implementing the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019,” a law that imposed crippling sanctions on Syria that are designed to prevent the country from rebuilding after years of war.

The resolution said that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was “falsely claiming” US sanctions impeded the aid response to the earthquake. But it’s a fact that US sanctions hurt the relief effort, something that has been detailed by the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and UN experts. After initially claiming sanctions wouldn’t hurt the relief effort, the Biden administration issued a 180-day sanctions exemption for transactions related to earthquake relief. UN experts responded by welcoming the move but said it wasn’t enough and called for the sanctions to be fully lifted.

The House resolution said it “mourned” the victims of the earthquake and portrayed enforcing the Caesar Act as a way to “protect” the Syrian people. But even before the earthquake, US sanctions on Syria were having a devastating impact on the civilian population. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged in 2021 that it was US policy to “oppose the reconstruction of Syria,” and the policy hasn’t changed. Business Insider covered Greene and Massie voting against the resolution but completely mischaracterized the bill. The report said they voted against “mourning the 50,000 people killed in the deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria” and made no mention of the fact that it supported maintaining crushing sanctions on Syria.

The Biden administration has said it’s against regional countries upgrading ties with the Assad government, even if it’s part of an effort to aid in earthquake relief. On top of the sanctions and opposing Syria’s engagement with its neighbors, the US maintains an occupation force of about 900 troops in eastern Syria and backs the Kurdish-led SDF in the region, allowing the US to control about one-third of Syrian territory. The area the US controls is where most of the country’s oil resources are, keeping the vital resource out of the hands of Damascus.

Read more …

“..Yoel Roth, was approached in 2021 and given a list of 40,000 accounts suspected of engaging in “inauthentic behavior” in support of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party.”

Twitter Received ‘State Sponsored Blacklists’ From US – Matt Taibbi (RT)

The US State Department, both directly and through third-party organizations, pressed Twitter to censor American users for their non-existent connections to Russia, China, and Hindu nationalism, according to internal documents. Published by journalist Matt Taibbi on Thursday, the latest ‘Twitter Files’ reveal that Twitter’s former trust and safety chief, Yoel Roth, was approached in 2021 and given a list of 40,000 accounts suspected of engaging in “inauthentic behavior” in support of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The list was provided by the ‘Digital Forensics Research Lab’ at the Atlantic Council, a think tank funded by the US State Department’s ‘Global Engagement Center’ (GEC), as well as a host of NATO governments and weapons manufacturers.

According to the files, Roth investigated the list and found that “virtually all appear to be real people” rather than Indian bots, while Taibbi contacted several and learned that they were “ordinary Americans” with no connection whatsoever to Indian politics. Created in the final year of the Obama administration, the GEC is a State Department entity that works with multiple US intelligence agencies to “counter foreign disinformation.” It is forbidden from operating within the United States, and recently had to cut its ties with a George Soros-backed NGO that was using its funding to target American conservative news sites.

While the list of supposed Hindu nationalists was given to Twitter via the Atlantic Council, the GEC directly passed other lists to the social media platform, including 500 accounts that were allegedly spreading Iranian “disinformation,” and 5,500 “Chinese accounts” engaged in “state-backed coordinated manipulation,” despite the fact that this latter list included multiple Western government accounts and at least three CNN employees. Roth described the Chinese list as “a total crock,” while fellow employee Aaron Rodericks said it provided “more entertainment value than anything.” The GEC and its organizations tangentially connected to the State Department – such as the infamous ‘Alliance for Securing Democracy’ that published the ‘Hamilton68’ dashboard of “Russian bots” – had long pressed Twitter to crack down on allegedly Kremlin-connected accounts, but Roth told staff that it was impossible to detect “Russian fingerprints” on any of the accounts.

Instead, accounts that retweeted “news sources linked to Russia” were considered Kremlin-sponsored. One list handed to Twitter by the GEC considered membership in France’s anti-government ‘Yellow Vests’ movement as “being Russia-aligned.” While Twitter’s executives may have been skeptical of the GEC’s ‘blacklists’, the US media was not. Emails show that multiple news outlets and agencies – including the Associated Press – would receive reports from the organization, and then press Twitter to take action and ban the listed accounts. “Reauthorization for GEC’s funding is up for a vote this year,” Taibbi wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “Can we at least stop paying to blacklist ourselves?”

Read more …

Would you volunteer?

Musk’s Human Brain Experiments Rejected By US Regulator (RT)

The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected clinical trials of billionaire Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant, seven current and former employees told Reuters on Thursday. The regulator cited multiple safety concerns the company must address before human testing can begin – a milestone they had hoped to reach this month. The FDA cited dozens of “deficiencies” barring the way to human trials when it rejected Neuralink last year, the employees explained. Dozens of pigs have already been pressed into experimental service in order to address the agency’s concern that the tiny threads that interface with the wearer’s brain could migrate, altering brain and implant functionality, causing inflammation, rupturing blood vessels and otherwise damaging the fragile tissue, employees said.

The FDA is also reportedly concerned about whether Neuralink can be removed without causing damage – an issue the employees claimed has not been adequately addressed, despite the company’s assurances. Just like the lithium-ion batteries that power Musk’s Tesla electric vehicles, which burn for hours at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit if hit the wrong way, Neuralink’s lithium batteries could cause brain damage if they so much as overheat, experts told Reuters. The FDA wants Neuralink to prove with animal studies that the remotely-chargeable battery is “very unlikely” to fail. Displeased with the regulatory red-light, Musk has reportedly rushed the animal experiments in an attempt to address the FDA’s safety concerns. As a result, the Department of Agriculture is looking into potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act after alarms have been raised about the treatment of the animals.

Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation is investigating whether Neuralink correctly followed safety procedures when disposing of chips removed from animal brains. The Tesla tycoon has previously boasted that Neuralink is so safe he’d implant it in his own children, claimed it would restore total mobility to the paralyzed, and bragged that users would eventually “be able to save and replay memories.” However, Neuralink’s Vice President of engineering Dongjin Seo told a conference last month that its “primary short-term goal” was merely to help paralyzed patients use computerized text to communicate. Anything else, he said, was “long-term.” Despite the company’s recent projection of March 7, 2023 as the day the FDA would approve human trials, employees told Reuters there were no regulatory approvals looming on the horizon.

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Yes, the sphinx has a tail. A large one.

 

 

When it is in repose the Pterochroza ocellata (or peacock katydid) camouflage resembles a dead leaf. But in its startle display, it shows false eye spots on its normally hidden hind wings

 

 

Toucans

 

 


Seals have nails. They are not called fingernails, or toenails, or even flipper nails. Just nails

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Dec 062022
 
 December 6, 2022  Posted by at 9:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Olga in a hat with feather 1920

 

Musk Blasts New York Times for Hate Speech Report on Twitter (ET)
Musk’s Brain Chip Company Under Federal Investigation – Media (RT)
Oliver Stone Explores Causes Of Ukraine Conflict (RT)
Calls for Ukraine Aid Oversight are ‘Russian Propaganda’ (Antiwar)
Bases Deep Inside Russia Rocked By Explosions; New Airstrikes Hit Ukraine (ZH)
The G7 Cap on Russian Oil Is a Subsidy to China (Lacalle)
Norway And Germany Ask NATO To Protect Underwater Gas Pipelines (Remix)
Russia and China Shift Further Away From Dollar (RT)
Some Lights Go Out, Some Lights Go On (Kunstler)
A Warning -Which We Will Ignore- (Denninger)
Michael Avenatti Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison For Embezzlement (CNN)
Facebook Threatens To Cancel News (RT)
India Gets World’s First Gold ATM (RT)
Pfizer CEO Refuses To Testify To EU Parliament COVID Panel – Again (Pol.eu)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fear sells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

Musk Blasts New York Times for Hate Speech Report on Twitter (ET)

Twitter owner Elon Musk blasted a New York Times report claiming problematic content and hate speech was on an “unprecedented” rise on the platform following his takeover, countering earlier claims by the billionaire. According to findings by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups, the NY Times reported that slurs against black Americans increased from 1,282 times a day to 3,876 times. Posts against gay men and Jews went from 2,506 times to 3,964, and 61 percent, respectively during the two weeks after Musk bought Twitter. Musk replied in a tweet that the report was “Utterly false.” The NY Times report has, till now, gotten over 44,000 likes, while the Musk response garnered 346,000 likes, and nearly 21,000 retweets.

“Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in the report. “They have reacted accordingly.” The outlet said that accounts related to the terrorist group ISIS were coming back on the platform, along with QAnon supporters who have received verification symbols.“This reporting is such garbage,” said Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute. “The experience on Twitter is pretty much the same as it was before, plus a few ‘edgy’ accounts being reinstated. The left-wing journalists want to create a false narrative to justify more censorship. It’s transparent and pathetic.”

Musk has reiterated his view that hate speech will not be tolerated on the platform, and that there will be no “free-for-all hellscape” regarding speech. However, he has also upheld free speech on Twitter by uncensoring prominent conservative personalities like former president Donald Trump, investigative news organization Project Veritas, and satire site The Babylon Bee.This has irked many on the left who advocate for banning these accounts under the pretext of hate speech.“By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law,” said Musk earlier in the year. “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

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Trying to get Musk. Two sides: one, animal tests are a sensitive issue. But two: enabling people to see, and hear, and walk, everyone’s in favor of that.

Musk’s Brain Chip Company Under Federal Investigation – Media (RT)

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp, a firm specializing in brain implants, is facing a federal probe due to alleged “animal-welfare violations” during product tests, Reuters reported on Monday, just days after the billionaire announced a new timeline for human clinical trials. The US Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General launched the probe sometime in “recent months” after federal prosecutors said Neuralink could be violating the Animal Welfare Act, the outlet reported, citing government documents and multiple sources familiar with the investigation. The Animal Welfare Act regulates the treatment of certain animals used in research and commercial product testing, prohibiting inhumane practices which cause unnecessary suffering or death.

According to more than 20 current and former Neuralink employees, as well as dozens of internal company documents, Musk has pushed researchers at his brain chip firm to “accelerate development,” in some cases resulting in “botched experiments.” “Such failed tests have had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and killed,” employees told Reuters, adding that the number of animal deaths is higher than it needs to be “for reasons related to Musk’s demands to speed research.” At least four experiments involving 86 pigs and two monkeys were “marred” due to “human error” in recent years, meaning the tests had to be conducted again, resulting in more animal deaths. The errors were caused by “a lack of preparation by a testing staff working in a pressure-cooker environment,” employees added.

While regulatory filings show that Neuralink has passed all prior federal inspections, sources told Reuters the company does not keep exact records for the number of animals it kills during testing. The full scope of the USDA probe is not yet clear, however, and it is unknown whether the inquiry is directly tied to the complaints raised by Neuralink employees. Reports of the ongoing investigation came just days after Musk declared that US regulators could soon approve human testing for the Neuralink brain implant, claiming human trials may begin in just six months. The exact timeline remains hazy, however, as Musk has hinted at upcoming human trials before.

The billionaire entrepreneur has voiced hopes the brain implant will allow paralyzed people to walk again and the blind to regain their sight, among other medical miracles. While the new technology has yet to be tested on people, Musk has demonstrated the brain chip on more than one occasion, including an April 2021 presentation in which a macaque monkey purportedly played a video game using its mind alone.

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“We’re telling Russians what to do, I mean it’s ridiculous, given what we’ve done.”

Oliver Stone Explores Causes Of Ukraine Conflict (RT)

The US turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian country since 2014 is the root cause of the current conflict, award-winning film director Oliver Stone said in an interview with the Serbian daily Politika, published Monday.“Who are we to point fingers at anyone?” Stone told his interviewer ahead of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he chairs the jury. “We’re telling Russians what to do, I mean it’s ridiculous, given what we’ve done.” What is currently happening in Ukraine is “not simple at all,” Stone added, but it’s getting reduced in the West to “Russians invaded.” There is no mention of anything that has been happening in the Donbas since 2014, or how many people were displaced because the US was arming Ukraine.

“Since 2014, Ukraine was no longer neutral but anti-Russian, and that’s what disrupted the balance,” Stone told Politika, adding that “every war has causes and consequences” if one one is willing to pay attention. The ‘Snowden’ director has also produced two documentaries about the events in Kiev, ‘Ukraine on Fire’ in 2016 and ‘Revealing Ukraine’ in 2019. Both have faced bans, boycotts and attacks over the course of this year. The US is quick to condemn any country in the world when it supposedly violates the “rules-based international order,” but “America breaks all the rules whenever it wants and you know it,” Stone told his Serbian interviewer.He expressed regret for voting for Joe Biden, saying the “grandpa” turned out to be very dangerous, with a “dream” of regime change in Moscow so the US can control Russia again as it did in the 1990s.

Barack Obama’s choice of Biden as his running mate in 2008, in order to appease the establishment Democrats, was “a huge mistake,” Stone said. He also argued the only hope for the US would be the emergence of a third party, as both Democrats and Republicans are beholden to the military-industrial complex. Stone’s most recent documentary, ‘Nuclear,’ addresses the role of atomic energy in dealing with climate change. It will also be shown at the RSIFF. Asked if he was still a rebel, Stone replied he was getting old and having troubles with his eyesight and hearing, but he prefers to “live on my feet than die on my knees.”

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“Ukraine is spending the money really well; that’s why they’re winning..”

Calls for Ukraine Aid Oversight are ‘Russian Propaganda’ (Antiwar)

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the head of the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday that the growing calls for more oversight of the billions of dollars the US is spending on Ukraine are “part of Russian propaganda.” While the majority of Republicans strongly favor continuing to arm Ukraine, even the more hawkish GOP members have said they favor increased oversight for the aid. Smith said that the concern from Republicans for more transparency “makes me a little crazy.” “Ukraine is spending the money really well; that’s why they’re winning,” Smith said at the Reagan National Defense Forum, according to Defense News. “Yes, we need oversight, but we don’t need that as an excuse to not fund what we’re doing.”


Last month, a small group of House Republicans opposed to arming Ukraine led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a bill that would require an audit of the funds that the US has spent on the war so far. Greene said that if she needed to, she would reintroduce the legislation after the next Congress is sworn in this January. The White House is looking for Congress to approve $37.7 billion in new Ukraine aid during the lame-duck period. If authorized, the new funds will bring total US spending on a proxy war on Russia’s border to about $105 billion.

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“The Saratov base lies some 600 kilometers east of Ukraine..” What missiles are they using for this?

Bases Deep Inside Russia Rocked By Explosions; New Airstrikes Hit Ukraine (ZH)

Monday saw another major escalation in the Ukraine war as Russian media reported that explosions rocked two air bases in Russia, suggesting Ukrainian forces could be seeking to launch missiles deep into Russian territory, though the exact cause or type of weapon behind the explosions are unknown. It could also possibly be another “sabotage attack” such that was previously seen in the Crimea. One of the Russian bases struck reportedly hosts nuclear-capable strategic bombers being utilized in airstrikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The Associated Press details in the aftermath of the blasts, “Russian state RIA Novosti news agency said three servicemen were killed and six others injured, and a plane was damaged, early Monday when a fuel truck exploded at an air base in Ryazan, in western Russia.”

The report underscored that “The base houses long-range flight tankers that serve to refuel bombers in the air.” The other base that was hit is being identified as in the Saratov region. The Saratov base lies some 600 kilometers east of Ukraine, so both the bases are relatively deep inside Russian territory. Moscow meanwhile has taken quick, decisive action – once again launching a barrage of major airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, targeting particularly energy infrastructure as part of the stated purpose of degrading Ukraine’s power supply going into winter. For days Ukrainian officials have been warning the population to brace for new major attacks.

Air raid alert sirens sounded Monday across the country. “The enemy is again attacking the territory of Ukraine with missiles!” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an official with the Ukrainian president’s office, wrote on Telegram. According to more from the AP: “Media reports referred to explosions in several parts of the country, including the cities of Odesa, Cherkasy and Kryvyi Rih. In Odesa, the local water supply company said a missile strike cut power to pumping stations, leaving the entire city without water.” Civilians are sheltering in underground places like metro stations, especially in the populous Ukrainian capital… Ukraine has so far counted a handful of deaths from Monday’s fresh round of Russian strikes. It’s expected that power and water access in many parts will be impacted more severely given most estimates have already put the national energy grid at 40% disabled.

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Straight from Brussels to Beijing. EU suicide pact.

The G7 Cap on Russian Oil Is a Subsidy to China (Lacalle)

There are many mistakes in the G7 agreement to put a cap on Russian oil. The first one is that it does not hurt Russia at all. The agreed cap, at $60 a barrel, is higher than the current Urals price, above the five-year average of the quoted price and higher than Rosneft’s average netback price. According to Reuters, “the G7 price cap will allow non-EU countries to continue importing seaborne Russian crude oil, but it will prohibit shipping, insurance, and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is sold for less than the price cap”. This means that China will be able to purchase more Russian oil at a large discount while the Russian state-owned oil giant will continue to make a very healthy 16% return on average capital employed (ROACE) and more than 8.8 billion roubles in revenues, which means an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) that more than doubles its capex requirements.

This misguided cap is not only a subsidy to China and a price that still makes Rosneft enormously profitable and able to pay billions to the Russian state in taxes. It is a big mistake if we want to see lower oil prices. With this cap the G7 have created an unnecessary and artificial bottom to old prices. The G7 did not want to understand why oil prices have roundtripped in 2022: Competition and demand reaction. By putting a $60 a barrel cap, which is a bottom price, the G7 have almost made it impossible for prices to reach a true bottom if a demand crisis arrives. On the one hand, the G7 has taken 4.5 million barrels a day, the estimated Russian oil exports for 2023, out of the supply picture with a minimum -and maximum- price, but additionally has made OPEC keener on cutting supply and raising their exports’ average realized oil price higher.

China must be exceedingly happy. The Asian giant will secure a long-term supply at al attractive price from Russia and sell refined products globally at higher margins. Sinopec and Petrochina will find enough opportunities in the global market to secure better margins for their refined products while guaranteeing affordable supply in a challenging economic situation. When I read this news about “price caps” I wonder if bureaucrats have ever worked in a global competitive industry. They may have not, but they certainly employ thousands of “experts” that may have told them that this is a clever idea. It is rubbish. If the G7 really wanted to hurt Russia’s finances and exports the way to do it is to encourage higher investment in alternative and more competitive sources. However, what is happening is the opposite. G7 governments continue to impose barriers to investment in energy as well as place regulatory and wrongly called environmental burdens that make it even more difficult to guarantee diversification and security of supply.

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Protect from whom?

Norway And Germany Ask NATO To Protect Underwater Gas Pipelines (Remix)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Haar Støre have called on NATO to protect underwater pipelines and communication cables by creating a special coordination structure, according to Deutsche Welle. “Pipelines, telephone and internet cables are vital communications for our states; their safety should be given top priority,” Scholz said following his meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on the eve of the Berlin Security Conference. He added that the recent attacks on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines have shown how high the risks are in this area. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the initiative. “We have increased security measures in the wake of the recent Nord Stream sabotage, and it is vital that we do even more to ensure that our maritime infrastructure is protected against future attacks,” Stoltenberg said.

Norway’s prime minister also said his country would direct some of its gas export revenues to help Ukraine and other countries affected by the global energy crisis. The rise in energy prices caused by the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine has brought additional profits to Norway. Scholz thanked Norway for the 10 percent increase in gas deliveries to Germany, as Berlin tries to make up for reduced deliveries from Russia. Scholz also said his country would continue to be a leader in defending Europe and European freedoms. “No aggressor should doubt that we have a firm intention to defend every one of our allies and every inch of alliance territory with all the forces at our disposal,” said the German chancellor.

Meanwhile, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann confessed that Germany may have contributed to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine because it supported the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. “Knowing what we know today, the decision to proceed with Nord Stream 2 after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 was Germany’s contribution to the outbreak of war in Ukraine,” Buschmann said in a welcome address to a meeting of G7 justice ministers in Berlin. He added that it was Germany’s duty to “confront this truth directly” and “draw the right conclusions” from it.

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Domestic currencies are used in a lot of trade bewteen many countries, away from the USD. It gets to add up.

Russia and China Shift Further Away From Dollar (RT)

Russia and China are increasingly switching to their national currencies in trade, with nearly half of the two countries’ transactions carried out in rubles and yuan, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has revealed. The statement was made during a video conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday, with Mishustin expressing hope that the use of the national currencies instead of the US dollar and euro will grow further.“This transition… will be actively gaining momentum. This is the kind of settlement that should prevail. This is the logic of a sovereign economic and financial policy of a multipolar world,” he said. Mishustin noted that despite external pressures and unfavorable economic conditions, trade between the two countries has seen double-digit growth, and in the first ten months of the year, trade turnover was up by almost a third and is now close to $150 billion.


“This is already higher than last year’s figures. In the long term, as the leaders of the two countries agreed, we will reach $200 billion or more,” he stated. In recent years, Russia and China have been ramping up the use of domestic currencies in mutual settlements in an effort to move away from the US dollar and euro. Moscow has been steadily pursuing a policy of de-dollarization in foreign trade and has increased the use of the yuan. In addition to the Chinese currency featuring more frequently in trade settlements, some Russian companies have begun issuing yuan-denominated bonds, while a number of banks are offering deposits in the currency.

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“..despite their gaslight and smoke-screens, the global bankruptcy approaches its nauseating climax..”

Some Lights Go Out, Some Lights Go On (Kunstler)

Have Americans grokked that virtually all of the mis-and-dis-information bombarding them lo these many years actually comes from the government and the news media channels that serve it? What we’ve got now in this country is a Mind-Fuckery Industrial Complex waging a psy-ops war on the people of this land. Why is that? Essentially, to cover-up past crimes against the country by public officials. Twitter, pre-Musk, was a major accomplice and enabler of all that, and suddenly it’s not — to the horror of everyone in charge at our nation’s seat of government. The main crimes revolve around selling-out America’s future one way or another — “Joe Biden” and Company being only the most blatant perps in the big picture.

Before them was Hillary Clinton, with her purchase of the Democratic National Committee and previous lucrative ops during her turn as Secretary of State, like the Uranium One deal, the Skolkovo military tech transfer op, and then the Russia Collusion op to insure none of that would ever come to light. The whole Intel Community behemoth was neck deep in it, too, amping up the Russia prank into a four-year coup d’état. Remember, The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting that Hillary’s little hoax was for-real. It’s all just gotten more grotesque since Mr. Trump was ejected in the souped-up 2020 election, with sideshows such as the ongoing race-and-gender hustles, the climate con, and the Green New Deal bullshit.

Covid-19, surely released on-purpose, was, as Ed Dowd avers, a cover for global bankruptcy. Nothing else explains the astounding coordination of so many governments acting the same way against their own citizens: lockdowns, vaxx mandates, vaxx passports, and all. The icing on that poison cake, of course, is that everything the public health officialdom told you about Covid-19 was patently untrue, and dishonestly so, not via omission or plain incompetence. In fact, the virus was made in a Chinese lab with the help of Dr. Fauci and colleagues. Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine did work effectively against it. The “vaccines” were not tested properly and turned out to be harmful. And now the Covid-19 melodrama is ending in a discernable death-of-the-vaxxed and the reveal of all those aforesaid lies, while, anyway, despite their gaslight and smoke-screens, the global bankruptcy approaches its nauseating climax.

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No spare parts.

A Warning -Which We Will Ignore- (Denninger)

Read this carefully folks…. “Municipality and county officials “have formed a plan for the night and the next few nights that we may be out of power. It’s a very serious situation,” Fields said. “So we’ve come to an agreement to best protect our citizens and to protect the businesses of our county, we’re going to implement a curfew tonight.” The power outage in Moore County is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence” after crews found signs of potential vandalism at several locations, CNN previously reported.” Two substations taken out with (presumed) small-arms rifle fire (e.g. bog-standard hunting rifles) from what obviously were a very small group of people, perhaps one or two at each location pissed off about who-knows-what.

Question: Why couldn’t this be immediately fixed? Answer: They don’t have spares for the parts that were damaged. It’s a gun folks, not a large blast that destroyed the land around the area. Equipment was damaged. Ok, so replace it and turn the power back on. That only works if you have the replacements, which they obviously do not. There is nowhere in this nation where you can’t drive a truck full of equipment across a single county in a couple of hours. Doing so requires you have the replacements. Why do they not have the spares?

Because we sent our supply lines overseas, we made no provisions to have spares, and the regulators at the state and federal level sat on their hands and played with themselves instead of requiring that providers of critical services, such as electricity, had a sufficient stock of spares to cover both routine failures and those caused by weather or low-grade assaults perpetrated by small numbers of people. This is the gross incompetence we have throughout our society. It is the manifestation of “oh nothing bad will ever happen so we don’t have to be prepared for it” that has shown up in all manner of other places, such as the cars that are completed except for chips in their engine computers without which they will not run, and thus they’re sitting in a field unsold.

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“Will serve that after five years he’s serving on charges in New York, for a total of 19 years in prison.”

They made him their hero.

Michael Avenatti Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison For Embezzlement (CNN)

Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and obstruction. Avenatti pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of wire fraud for each client he stole from and one count of endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Internal Revenue Code. Prosecutors said he obstructed the IRS’ effort to collect $5 million in unpaid payroll taxes for Tully’s Coffee. The sentence handed down by federal district Judge James Selna will begin after Avenatti completes a five-year prison term he’s currently serving after being convicted in two separate trials in New York.

Selna also ordered Avenatti to pay over $10 million in restitution to four clients and to the IRS. “Michael Avenatti was a corrupt lawyer who claimed he was fighting for the little guy. In fact, he only cared about his own selfish interests,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement following the sentencing. “He stole millions of dollars from his clients – all to finance his extravagant lifestyle that included a private jet and race cars. As a result of his illegal acts, he has lost his right to practice law in California, and now he will serve a richly deserved prison sentence.” Dean Steward, an attorney for Avenatti, said in a statement to CNN that the sentence “was overly harsh and uncalled for,” adding that his client described it in court as being “off the charts.”

[..] In pleading guilty earlier this year, Avenatti admitted to stealing millions of dollars from clients, including $4 million from a client with major disabilities. According to the indictment, after Avenatti negotiated settlements for the clients that required payment to go to them, he would lie to the clients about the terms of the settlements, instead depositing the funds into attorney trust accounts he controlled. He would then embezzle and misappropriate those funds, according to the indictment, and to prevent discovery of his scheme, he would tell clients the settlement proceeds hadn’t yet been paid, among other tactics.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1599882362916990976

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The MSM beat you to it.

Facebook Threatens To Cancel News (RT)

Facebook’s parent company has threatened to quit carrying news on the world’s largest social media platform if US lawmakers pass a bill that could give media outlets more leverage in negotiating usage fees for their content. Members of Congress reportedly plan to add the media initiative – called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) – to a must-pass annual defense authorization bill to help push it through. The legislation would make it easier for media outlets to negotiate collectively for a larger share of revenue from the ads posted on their content, a boost that could be especially significant for local newspapers and broadcasters.

“If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscriptions,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on Monday in a Twitter post. Stone argued that publishers and broadcasters put their content on Facebook because it boosts their profits. “No company should be forced to pay for content users don’t want to see and that’s not a meaningful source of revenue. Put simply: the government creating a cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private entities is a terrible precedent for all American businesses.”

The JCPA has bipartisan support in the House and Senate, as well as bipartisan opposition. The News Media Alliance, an industry trade group that has lobbied for the JCPA, called Meta’s threat “undemocratic and unbecoming.” The group added that similar “threats were attempted before the Australian government passed a similar law to compensate news outlets, played out unsuccessfully, and ultimately news publishers were paid.” The American Civil Liberties Union is among the groups that have opposed the bill, claiming that it would create an “ill-advised antitrust exemption for publishers and broadcasters.” Critics also have pointed out that the bill doesn’t require that funds generated through social media fees be used for paying journalists.

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Western countries wouldn’t know what to do with one.

India Gets World’s First Gold ATM (RT)

Goldsikka Pvt Ltd launched its first Gold ATM with Technology support from M/s OpenCube Technologies Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad-based startup company on December 3. This is India’s first and the world’s first real-time Gold ATM. Report informs via The Economic Times that unlike usual ATMs that dispense money, the Goldsikka ATM dispenses Gold coins. In what is India’s first gold ATM, people can insert their debit or credit cards into the Goldsikka and buy gold coins. The ATM has a capacity of storing 5kgs of gold. There are 8 available options for the quantity of gold starting from 0.5 grams to 100 grams. The Vice President of Goldsikka Pratap said, “Each ATM has a capacity of holding upto 5kgs of gold which is worth around Rs.2-3 crores.


The ATM machine dispenses coins ranging from 0.5 grams to 100 grams. There are 8 available options, including 0.5 grams, 1 gram, 2 grams, 5 grams, 10 grams, 20 grams, 50 grams and 100 grams. People can come here and get the coins directly instead of going to jewellery shops. These coins are 24-carat gold and 999 certified. The customers will get their investment returns at a live price without any wastage. The important feature of the ATM is prices are updated live. We take the London bullion market as our market year. The prices there are updated and displayed on the screen and so are the taxes. Today, we had a footfall of around 20 people till the afternoon. We are hoping that more people would use this,” he said.

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Ursula’s best friend. What’s her take?

Pfizer CEO Refuses To Testify To EU Parliament COVID Panel – Again (Pol.eu)

Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla has once again declined to testify before the European Parliament’s special COVID committee. That’s strike two. “Since the October COVID hearing, we have no further information to share with the Committee, so respectfully decline the invitation to again revisit these issues,” states the letter from Bourla dated December 2 and seen by POLITICO. Bourla previously pulled out of an appointment to testify before the committee in October, at which he was expected to face tough questions on how secretive vaccine deals were struck. That decision followed an audit report into the EU’s vaccine procurement strategy that raised new questions about contact between the pharma CEO and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that preceded a multibillion-euro vaccine contract.

On October 14, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed it had an ongoing investigation into the EU’s COVID vaccine purchases, but has not yet specified who is being investigated or which of the EU’s vaccine contracts are under scrutiny. At the October 10 COVI hearing, the company’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, faced repeated questions from the committee on Bourla’s absence, one of which was even taped to some MEPs’ laptops. She also took questions on vaccine contract negotiations and the jabs themselves, including one from Dutch MEP Robert Roos (ECR group) about whether the vaccine was tested for its ability to prevent transmission before entering the market. That question — and Small’s answer — landed Roos an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News talk show.But, in the end, it seems Small was just no substitute for Bourla. So, on October 28, the COVID committee extended a second invitation to the CEO.

“Our committee felt that during the previous hearing with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, where Pfizer was represented by Mrs. Janine Small, important questions regarding the advanced purchase agreements between the European Union and Pfizer, which fall under the responsibility of the CEO and of which only he has the authority to respond to them, remained unanswered,” COVID committee chair Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D group) said in a statement today. “As chair of the COVI committee, I deeply regret Dr. Bourla’s refusal to discuss this matter with the Members of the European Parliament,” she said. “As a co-legislator of the European budget, the Parliament has the right to obtain full transparency on the modalities of these expenditures and the preliminary negotiations leading up to them.”

Tucker Malhotra

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“By the standing of the @TheJusticeDept, I am now as indictable as Julian Assange.. I’d be happy to take that one to the Supreme Court.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humpback

 

 

Newborn twins

 

 

Shark

 

 

 

 

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